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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25055647">Hibiscus</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/janjan_the_ninth/pseuds/janjan_the_ninth'>janjan_the_ninth</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>DE Artfest 2020 [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Asexual Character, DEArtfest, Detroit Evolution, Detroit Evolution Artfest (Detroit: Become Human), M/M, Marriage Proposal, Misunderstandings, Nines is asexuel, Octopunk Media, communication is important</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 00:34:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,379</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25055647</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/janjan_the_ninth/pseuds/janjan_the_ninth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Gavin had been planning his proposal for weeks. It had to be perfect. Of course, nothing ever goes as planned.</p><p>DE Artfest Day 4: Proposal</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>DE Artfest 2020 [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1814725</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>82</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Hibiscus</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is my fic for the DE Artfest day 4. The prompt is 'Proposal'.<br/>Beta read by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/space_ally">the brilliant AJ</a>.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Nines was nervous. There was no other way to describe what he was feeling right now. He was more nervous than he had ever been in his life. Which wasn’t long, since in theory he wasn’t even two years old. Two eventful years. </p><p>Being a Detective at the DPD wasn’t easy and gave him his fair share of stress and uncertainty, but it also gave him Gavin. Gavin was the best thing that ever happened to him. Even when he’d never thought so at the beginning of their partnership. Their partnership changed from them being irritated at having to work together to a well working partnership, after Gavin finally recognised him as more than a machine. From there on it quickly changed into something like friendship, even if none of them ever uttered the word. And then they were in love. They had to work through some stuff until they reached a stable relationship, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. It was so much like them. They were happy together and everything was fine. Or so he thought.</p><p>The last few weeks… The last few weeks had been different. It had started with Gavin being a bit more lost in thoughts. When Nines then tried to catch his attention, his partner jumped and either excused himself to the breakroom or shifted around as if he got caught doing something bad. It was unnerving Nines but he shrugged it off as Gavin working on their cases. </p><p>Then Gavin started to spend his breaks without him, giving some weak excuses on how he just wants to get a good coffee, not the shit they had in the breakroom, and that Nines should continue working on the case, rather than helping him fulfill his coffee cravings. It was unusual but Gavin had also buried himself in work over the last few days. Which also meant that he cut back on their bickering. It was sad but they still got work to do.</p><p>But then he took his leave to god-knows-where after work. It was obvious that he spent some of that time with Tina. Other times were a mystery to Nines, since he refrained from scanning Gavin. Gavin came home every evening, a satisfied smile on his face as he cuddled into Nines’ side to sleep. The pit in Nines’ stomach grew.</p><p>He was putting on his scarf to protect himself from the cold November air while Gavin was standing in front of him, the car keys dangling from his hand. </p><p>“Ready to go tin can, or do you need some more time to find matching mittens?” There was a smirk on Gavin’s lips, that didn’t quite reach his eyes. Nines knew his partner well enough to know that he was nervous. This didn’t help soothing Nines worries at all. He hadn’t said anything to Gavin about it. Instead he had searched the internet. The results he had found weren’t promising at all. And after stumbling over the concept of a ‘break up date’, he knew that his time with Gavin would end. That wouldn't stop him from enjoying the last few hours he’d got with Gavin.</p><p>“I’m ready,” he lied as he followed Gavin out of their apartment, closing the door behind him.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Gavin was nervous. Today was the day that took him months to think about and weeks to actually bring to fruition. They of course talked about this topic before, so in itself it shouldn’t be a surprise for Nines. But he did everything in his power so that this would be something Nines wouldn’t expect now. He wanted it to be a surprise and he wanted it to be perfect. Nines had made him into a better person, a happier person. And he wanted to make Nines happy too.</p><p>In his search for the best proposal, he found a tiny but beautiful botanic garden with a few greenhouses. It was nearly a one and a half hour drive away from Detroit, but it also included a tropical greenhouse. And that’s exactly where he wanted to go to. It was no secret with all the flowers and plants that adorned their apartment, that Nines loved plants. and he wanted this to be perfect and include something that Nines loved. So he called the place ahead of today to figure out if the garden would be open for a proposal. Of course he had asked if they had a hibiscus plant in their greenhouse too. Then he had to scout out the location. The employees of the garden were kind enough to let him in after work, since he didn’t want to leave Nines alone on their days off. When he was at the botanic garden he could imagine the whole thing already and it made his stomach feel all fuzzy. After everything he went through he’d never thought that someone would want him but here he was, planning a fucking proposal.</p><p>He had to return to the botanic garden a few more times, cause while the employees were excited for a proposal to happen at their workplace, he still had to talk to the owner to have the tropical greenhouse for themselves.</p><p>Finding a ring wasn’t any easier. Tina and him went looking for rings on breaks and after work. There were a few rings that he liked, but none of them were perfect. In the end he found a jeweller who had helped him design the perfect ring. It was a simple metallic black band with a silverish white band in the middle of it. His own ring would look similar to this, but instead of a silver band in it, it would include a LED band. Which Nines could connect to, if he wanted to. Then his ring would glow in sync with Nines’ LED.</p><p>The drive to the garden was unusually quiet. Gavin’s legs were jittering while Nines was looking out passenger side window the whole drive. Nines had been behaving a bit different in the last few days. He probably already figured out this whole surprise proposal business and only played along for Gavin’s sake.</p><p>As they reached the garden they left the car and walked through the outside part of the botanic garden. It wasn’t as interesting and beautiful as the greenhouses, the harsh November weather having cleaned a lot of leaves from the trees, but it still had a specific charm to it. He leaned a bit into Nines as they looked at one of the signs for some information for a weird as fuck tree. Nines stayed in his rigid position for a second before he took a step forward to read the sign better. Weird. </p><p>They swiftly continued their walk through the garden and entered the first greenhouse. There were only a handful of other people walking around and he paid them no mind. The closer they got to the tropical greenhouse, the more nervous he grew. Nines was still walking next to him, looking at the flowers but something felt off. He wasn’t as enthusiastic as he normally was around flowers. Maybe he was cataloging the conditions the plants were growing in, noticing everything that was wrong or something. It still didn’t help to soothe Gavin’s nerves. As they entered the room with the tropical flowers, he instantly looked at the hibiscus flowers. They were Nines’ favourite after all. And as planned, no one else was there. They had the whole tropical greenhouse to themselves. </p><p>Carefully he directed Nines towards the hibiscus flowers. As they reached them he saw Nines take in the flowers with a soft smile. It was now or never.</p><p>“You know, I didn’t drive the whole way here just for us to look at pretty flowers.” This caught Nines’ attention and he looked up at Gavin, his LED glowing yellow. His expression seemed… guarded? He continued right away, before he could start to doubt his decision.</p><p>“In the last year I have been the happiest I’ve ever been. You made it better. You turned my life upside down the moment we got partnered, exactly two years ago. I didn’t make it easy for you cause I thought I didn’t deserve you, yet you stayed by my side through everything. Us, being in a relationship, being happy, that was never something I saw for myself and yet here we are.” He let out a brief laugh. The LED on Nines’ temple circled in yellow the whole time. He took a deep breath before he went down on one knee and held out the ring. “Will you marry me?” Gavin hopefully looked up at Nines.</p><p>He was met with silence. With silence and a red LED as Nines took a step back from him. Suddenly it felt so wrong for him to kneel in front of Nines, so he quickly put the ring back into his pockets and stood up. Of course Nines didn’t want to marry him. That would permanently tie him to the mess of a person that he was. Stupid Gavin for actually thinking someone would stick with him. He felt his eyes starting to burn. He looked down on his hands, which were shaking. He balled them into fists.</p><p>“This is not what I had expected.” Nines finally replied.</p><p>“Yeah, I’m sorry, forget it.” Gavin said, feeling himself closing up. All the walls that he had taken down instantly went up again. He shoved his fists into his jacket’s pockets. He was frustrated, frustrated with the situation, but mostly with himself.</p><p>Nines voice was small when he spoke up again, “I thought you were going to break up with me.”</p><p>“W-What? Break up with you. I- I- I would never. I love you.” Gavin took a step towards Nines. He could still see the lingering hurt in Nines’ eyes. But more prominent was the pure relieve that flooded through them. He slowly raised his hand to cup Nines’ face with it. It was something that his partner always did to calm him. He didn’t initiated contact between them often, even that far in their relationship, but this is something he had to do. As soon as his hand cupped Nines’ face, the android leaned in to it, seeking the contact and sagged forward in relieve. All the tension left his body at once. “What made you think I would dump you?”</p><p>“You’ve been distant recently. Disappearing after work finished, staying away for long times. I didn’t scan you when you returned, I didn’t want to invade your privacy. Yet I still noticed that you were spending your time other people. I thought you had enough of me and realised that I’m not enough for you. Through my research I figured out that ‘breaking up dates’ are a thing and with us coming here, when we have never visited this botanic garden before, I jumped to conclusions. I assume that my insecurities might have clouded my judgment.”</p><p>“You think?”, he laughed and sombered. Two years ago he would have left it with this, heck even one year ago. He wasn’t that man anymore. “I’m sorry. I wanted to surprise the most advanced android ever and tried to be sneaky about it all. It should have been a happy day for you.” He awkwardly shifted on his feet and let his hand fall down from Nines face to rest on his shoulder. “I didn’t think about how it would come off to you. I’m sorry that I hurt you. You are the best thing that ever happened to me.”</p><p>He deflated. This hadn’t  turned out how he hoped it would. All the preparation, being sneaky and trying to not let Nines knew about his plans. They couldn’t have failed more spectacularly. Instead of this being a happy occasion he had caused his partner pain. He averted his eyes.</p><p>“We can go home if you want to. Or go somewhere else and forget about it… or I don’t know go-”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“Yes? Yes to what? Going home?” Gavin asked. He was definitely confused. Of course the state of the art android had to answer with Yes to an either or question.</p><p>“Yes” Nines said again, “Yes, I want to marry you.”</p><p>Gavin was speechless. Only Nines could surprise him like this. But he couldn't accept it just like that. He had to be sure he really wanted to accept his shitty proposal.</p><p>“You don’t have to accept it now. Not after this and how I made you feel in the last few weeks. It’s not like one can only propose once. I can make it right. I wanna make it right for you.”</p><p>“I know that. You could have handled it better, and I could have communicated my worries with you. But that doesn’t matter right now. What matters is how much thought you put into this. You wanted to surprise me and wanted this to be perfect. You tried so hard to get this right and even remembered my favourite flowers. You care for me. You love me. And I love you. So of course I wanna marry you, you daft idiot.” </p><p>There was the biggest smile on Nines’ face as he said that. And Gavin could only imagine that a smile like that was on his face as well. After everything that had happened, Nines still said yes. He wanted to marry him. Excitement bubbled in his chest and he captured Nines’ lips with his. He felt Nines smiling into the kiss as his partner, no his fiancée cupped his face with both hands. As they stopped their kiss they still didn’t let go of each other, their foreheads still touching. By now Gavin definitely was smiling like a fool. A smiling fool in love who was going to get married to the best person he’d met.</p><p>Nines smile changed into a smirk. “Wasn’t there something you wanted to give me?” He raised an eyebrow.</p><p>Gavin muttered a “Fuck” under his breath as he rummaged through his pocket for the ring. He started to smirk too. “So, tin can. Will you accept this ring from this sad old meat sack?” His words were greeted with a small laugh.</p><p>“Yes. Now put it on my finger so that we can continue enjoying the flowers.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading this. I got the idea for a touching proposal from <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CB20QdrFCrf/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link">Springrolls amazing fanart</a>.<br/>I wanted Gavin to propose to Nines in a botanic garden or a greenhouse, where they were surrounded by flowers, cause Gavin knows how much Nines likes flowers. Of course my goblin brain had to add angst to the mix. I hope you enjoyed it.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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